[Oregonian]

Looking forward to reviews and impressions if and when these start hitting the show circuit. 

 

[Max Choiral]

  Sorry If I was too radical. But I feel dissapointed with new flagships which are not 3x better than previous TOTLs. But the price is 3X higher... I hope Technics will just show a class at good price.

I doubt this thing will be worth. They jumped out of nowhere with ridiculous price tag and a "new" technology. The whole line is pretty short with a massive empty space which is a middle segment, and now all of sudden this... Very skeptical

 

[vnmslsrbms]

how many times better is pretty hard to gauge.  That's a losing game.  Do you gauge it by how loud it can go?  How high it can go?  How low?  how natural sounding it is (how do you even measure that)?  30 years ago Senn didn't even come out with the orpheus yet (1991).  1968 they came out with HD414.  In 2008 they came out with the HD800.  Looks like 2016 they might come out with a slight upgrade.  It's improved by a lot.  In fact since the Orpheus was 13k or so and the HD800 at 1500 you can argue that the Orpheus is not 8.6x better than the HD800.  I'm not even factoring in inflation.  So yes, they have improved!  

 

[XERO1]

One other thing that sets this headphone apart from most of its competition is that it is one of only a few high-end closed-back headphones currently available.  The vast majority of all high-end headphones are open-back designs.

 

[trtrtr607]

interesting, any words on US release?

 

[XERO1]

"Early 2016"

 

[plakat]

With some luck I did find the Technics area at IFA last Tuesday, hidden quite well in one corner of the Panasonic hall (yes, a complete hall...)
 
They had 4 prototypes to try out plus one model under glass that was supposed to have some final hardware changes such as the metering markers on that horizontal slide mechanism and refined overall optics but no changes to sound according to booth staff. I had some time to try with the HP-P1 I brought along (my ifi was not available at that time unfortunately) and my iPhone as a (digital) source. Unfortunately I did not really like its sound signature with some sibilance I could not get over with, getting just to irritating to me. Its bass seems to be rather deep reaching and punchy, soundstage was a bit closed in unfortunately. Isolation seemed quite good though.
 
It worked OK directly out of an iPhone (though with the same irritating tendency to sibilance), I did not max out volume to reach more than my comfortable listening level (though I generally don't listen too loud). I uses 3,5mm connectors on the cups which are identical to the connectors on the Z7 including the locking mechanism (had those cables with me and used them to connect to the 3,5mm jack on the HP-P1).
 
Build quality was very good, even the prototypes, and it felt very good in hand. It was much heavier than I expected, but wearing comfort was fine, i.e. the weight was well distributed and clamping not too bad. Standard cable looks OK, connectors are metal. Folds flat -- very welcome. Quite big overall.
 

 

 

 

 

[XERO1]

Thanks for your impressions, plakat. 
 
They will probably be tweaking the sound a bit before the final production voicing (hopefully).

 

[plakat]

  Thanks for your impressions, plakat. 
 
They will probably be tweaking the sound a bit before the final production voicing (hopefully).

As I was not that pleased with the tuning I did in fact ask for just that. Unfortunately they answered that all they knew of were said small changes to the physical appearance I mentioned above, but no changes in sound signature. Would be quite late anyway as I guess production is already underway for their November release. I did try two of the prototypes on display btw.

 

[Ra97oR]

I have a pair of Technics RP-FDA100, I hope these sounds nothing like those... :rolleyes:

 

[Allanmarcus]

.

At the very least, they are currently one of only two 2-way headphones that will soon be available, so that gives them a pretty unique position in the market.

Obravo HAMT-1 and the Dharma

 

[death66613]

I have a dis-continued technics RP F1 closed back two way coaxial driver headphone. It sounds incredible once drive it well. Hope the new one will better than that...is it possible?

 

[beyerlove]

A Japanese website says Technics EAH-T700 will be released in January 22 2016, and the price will be 90,000 yen. (I have no idea how much oversea price would be, but 90,000 yen is aprox 750 USD at current exchange rate.) 

 

[XERO1]

Interesting.  At $700-$800, that would put it in direct competition with the $700 Sony MDR-Z7. 

 

[obobskivich]

Interesting.  At $700-$800, that would put it in direct competition with the $700 Sony MDR-Z7. 

And Audio-Technica W1000X and W1000Z, and Fostex TH-600, and Beyer T70. At least based on NA pricing. That's a lot more welcoming than around 1000 GBP (which is more like 1500-1600 USD). Will be interesting to see what comes of them as a dual-driver though - the last dual-driver full-size I was aware of came from Klipsch, and did not sound very good at all.